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International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
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Argentina

N.B.: General country data and external links have been provided by the Member State. * Uploaded: 06/2020

Table of Contents

General Country data

The main cultural assets of Argentina

Argentina has a wide diversity of cultural and natural heritage given the extensive territory and the geographical and environmental variety of the country. Our values and traditions are reflected in an endless diversity of movable heritage, archives, archaeological and paleontological sites, including underwater cultural heritage, built heritage and manifestations of intangible cultural heritage that acquire specificity according to their geographical origin. The Ministry of Culture is responsible for directing policies for the conservation, safeguarding and dissemination of tangible and intangible heritage, in conjunction with the ministries and/or secretariats of culture of the various jurisdictions, in accordance with the country's federal organization.

The legal framework on cultural heritage conservation

Argentina has ratified all the international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage and the dissemination of culture issued by UNESCO, from the 1954 Hague Convention and its two protocols, to the 2005 Convention on Cultural Diversity and the 2015 Recommendation on the Promotion of Museums; the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention and the OAS San Salvador Convention, as well as regional provisions within the scope of MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market), and the resolutions adopted by the United Nations and its agencies on the promotion and protection of cultural heritage.

At the federal level, Argentina has a wealth of legislation on the protection of cultural heritage that dates back to 1912 with the first law on the protection of archaeological and paleontological heritage, replaced in 2003 by Law 25743; Law 12665 on the protection of national historic monuments; Law 15930 on the General Archive of the Nation; Law 25197 on the registration of cultural heritage and Law 24633 on the international circulation of works of art and simultaneously on the protection of cultural heritage, just to name a few. In addition to the federal legislative and regulatory corpus, there are also provincial laws for the protection of cultural heritage.

The cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List

The Argentinean sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List reflect a wide spectrum of our world’s cultural and natural resources. By including both natural and cultural sites and categories not well-represented in the List, such as cultural landscapes, modern movement assets or Valdivian Temperate Forests, as well as considering geographical coverage in our federal country and the importance of international cooperation in the identification and conservation of our common heritage, Argentina aspires to go beyond the narrow definitions of heritage and strives to acknowledge and protect sites that are outstanding manifestations of human coexistence with nature, human interactions and cultural cohabitation.

Argentinean World Heritage sites (Text and websites in Spanish)


Adhesion to ICCROM

no data for this country

Within ICCROM

Mandates in ICCROM Council since 1958:

No mandates in ICCROM Council

ICCROM Staff since 1959: - None -

Involvement of Argentinean Nationals

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Activities in/with Argentina since 2002

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Activities details

Activities details



    External links

    Governmental Cultural Institutions

    Museums and Cultural Heritage Institutions


    * ICCROM reserves the right to moderate the content provided by Member States for country profiles to ensure that they remain within the scope of ICCROM’s mission and pertinent to cultural heritage. However, ICCROM does not take responsibility for the accuracy and validity of the content supplied. The ideas and opinions expressed are those of the Member States.